Maple Syrup and Birthday Cupcakes

Monday, March 29, 2010

Maple Syrup and Birthday Cupcakes

This past weekend a good friend from high school was visiting Boston. K had a conference here last week and stayed to hang out this weekend. On top of hanging out with friends, Butler made it to the Final Four! K went to Butler and is the president of his local alumni club!

On Saturday we decided to partake in some local fun by heading up to New Hampshire to go to a maple house where they boil maple syrup. We had beautiful weather on Saturday. It was a bit chilly but sunny and not a cloud in the sky. After arriving at the Grant Family Maple House, we had some food and got in line to learn all about how maple syrup is made.

What we learned is that the sap from the trees has about 2-3% sugar in it straight from the tree. At that percentage, it would take 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup!! So they first condense the sap until it reaches about 8% sugar. The sap is then boiled to evaporate off the water.

Once the temperature reads 7 degrees above the boiling point of water, you have syrup! The guy in the maple house even explained how they use a baraometer on the wall to get the barometric pressure so they know the exact boiling temperature of water for that given day. It was all very scientific and extremely interesting.

The small bottles of maple syrup were a sample from each batch they had made at the maple house this season. The guy explained that as the season goes on, the syrup tends to get darker due to the change in the amount of sugar in the sap.

Of course, we had to get some maple products while we were there. Obviously, maple syrup. We also got some maple candies, some maple sugar, and some maple pepper. Can’t wait to find creative ways to use the sugar and pepper. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know!

Also, since K’s birthday was last week, I made him some cupcakes to celebrate. I went with my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. I love that you can whip these up by dirtying only one bowl and using a whisk! I dipped them in some ganache and topped with festive sprinkles. Aren’t they pretty?

Cupcakes, Dessert

13 comments »

18 Responses to “Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes”

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Colleen — July 16, 2009 at 4:22 pm

These look amazing! I love that you added even more peanut butter flavor too!
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Amy Kingman — July 16, 2009 at 4:54 pm

Mmmmmm! These look incredible!! AH! My weakness!!!!
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Memória — July 16, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Oh wow!! This looks soo good. I would make the cupcakes with the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate cake recipe and then use the other recipes you provided. Thanks!!!!
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Jen — July 16, 2009 at 5:04 pm

You could definitely use any chocolate cupcake recipe that you want!
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Stephanie Wagner — July 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm

These look awesome! I bet they’re really rich!
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6

oneordinaryday — July 16, 2009 at 8:05 pm

Holy. Cow.
These look sooo darn good!
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Jill — July 17, 2009 at 3:51 am

I saw your picture on Tastespotting and had to see more! Your cupcakes look delicious!
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Kerstin — July 17, 2009 at 3:54 am

Wow, these look beyond incredible! I’m completely impressed 🙂
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Jennifer — July 17, 2009 at 10:32 am

peanut butter cups…one of my favorites!! What an awesome cupcake!!!
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Laura — July 17, 2009 at 1:50 pm

Oh. My. God. I think my DH is packing his bags to leave me as we speak!

These look soooo good. I bet it’s all you can do to eat one they are so rich!
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Erin — July 18, 2009 at 11:28 pm

These look delicious! Chocolate and peanut butter is the most fabulous combination!
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Scott W. — July 23, 2009 at 12:35 am

Alright, so you’ve gotta make some cupcakes when we are in Pennsylvania. These would work. Yummy!!!
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Jen — July 23, 2009 at 12:38 am

haha no prob Scott. Just let me know what you’re in the mood for. These were delicious…
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Ingrid — July 26, 2009 at 1:13 am

The only time I like chocolate or PB is when they’re together so these are looking pretty good to me!
~ingrid

Btw, your salmon and the “sauce” looked really good too!
~ingrid
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15

Mermaid Sweets — July 27, 2009 at 5:09 am

Thanks so much for the link back, your cuppies look amazing.
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comfycook — February 24, 2010 at 2:12 pm

I just discovered these and can’t wait to make them. Love chocolate and peanut butter.
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LauraC — May 4, 2010 at 8:13 pm

I just made your vegan chocolate cupcakes over the weekend for some vegan friends and they were a huge hit. I had bookmarked this cupcake recipe for mother’s day because I LOVE peanut butter cups.

Anyway I wanted to let you know the woman from Confetti Cakes was on Rachel Ray and they posted the official recipe on the Rachel Ray website. Not sure if you want to link it?

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/chocolate-cake/
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Jan — February 23, 2012 at 7:29 am

THank you for this post! I tried the cupcakes out here: http://www.themediamaid.com/2012/cupcake-celebrations/

and loved it!